What's going on with D2D?

I've been a self-published author on Draft2Digital for a little over a year now. I can't help but think that D2D has been ripping me off. I have sold less than 10 books this entire time. When I started, I was selling 1-2 books per months minimum. Not a horrible start. Then, it all sudden stopped and no matter if I did more marketing or not, I still wasn't selling copies according to their platform. However, I had been getting more reviews. I finally got a 5 star review on Amazon, but hadn't sold a book in months (I guess this is possible if someone took their time reading the book or picked up from their "to read" shelf after a while). I had also got another review or so on Good Reads and someone tagged me to review my book on another platform when I wasn't selling any books.

I had done some search engine search and see my book popping up on different places other than the places I was marketing it through on D2D. There were some other retailers and I was thinking they could be third parties of the stores I distributed through or that company owns two different named book stores perhaps. There were copies on Amazon that said "used for sale" and "new for sale", but these books surely weren't purchased because I never received the money for them. I wondered if they were doing a print by demand type thing, but usually when people put "used" copies of books up for sale on Amazon, they have a copy ready to ship. This seemed a bit odd to me and Amazon wasn't the only place that had this listed.

There was nothing illegally pirated I could find on the web otherwise.

So, one day I go on to check up on my D2D stuff, make sure everything looks good. Fine. Go the next day and all my books have been delisted! My worst nightmare. I changed my e-mail address, thinking my account was hacked (because well...that had been happening a lot in my life over the past year).

I messaged their customer support about it and mentioned I also changed my e-mail because I am not sure if my account had been compromised.

The customer support people said I never turned in my tax info on time. I did get the tax interview and photo ID in on time as the process goes. Due to them not being able to verify my photo ID, they said I didn't give them all the info they needed on time and that's why my books are all delisted and such and they sound incredibly accusatory over something so simple (we may pursue legal claims? Really? For what?) :

Spoiler: Customer Supp Said:

Hello,
Our tax client has notified us that the KYC Information requested was not provided in the time allowed and the account has been terminated as a result. We will not be reconsidering the status of this account at this time.

Since your account has been terminated, our Terms of Service prohibit you from establishing a new account, using a false identity, impersonating any other person, or using a username or password you are not authorized to use.

Draft2Digital expends significant time and resources in providing the ebook conversion and distribution program to our users. Please note that termination of your account may merely be an initial step. Depending on our review of the activities associated with your account and your future actions and conduct, we may pursue legal claims against you or report your activities to the appropriate authorities.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Draft2Digital

They're no longer posted for sale in any store, but they tell me that 3rd parties that have purchased copies of my book are still allowed to sell them (I think this was in regards to physical copies). At that point, it means I don't get a portion of that sale when it does sell. It makes sense in a way if you have a copy of a book you fully purchased that you can sell it, right? But why mention that other parties are still allowed to sell their books unless you know other parties definitely have the books to sell? I'm feeling ripped off here.

My book has been there for over a year, it had not broken any form of rule or policy they had and everything was in good standing with them.

When I changed my residential address officially through the post office (we own our past address still so we didn't change it immediately when we moved), I proceeded to change the address that we considered our "residential" address to update the tax info. Finished their tax interview forms and submitted a picture of my photo ID to them that has the new address on it. That was all that was instructed to do and I did and all seemed ready to go. I made sure it was a good quality photo. I mean, I did a pretty good job - you can even see a lot of the official watermarks and it's entirely clear. I've looked it over many times to be sure. (Uploaded a photo ID when I first created an account and everything and nothing was questioned - that was the end of the process).

Been dealing with illness in the family a lot lately so I hadn't been on D2D as much to check up on things. When I found out my books were delisted, I messaged them as to why. I never got any warning emails saying my book would be delisted. Many companies will hound you for correct documentation or to tell you that your documents are expiring with a million emails. I didn't get one from D2D saying they would delist my book.

I combed through all that author spam in my email and found one from their tax department (as well as another one saying that my Amazon publishing had been denied and that I needed to contact customer support).

The tax people said they then needed a secondary form of photo identification such as an international passport or a driver's license. They didn't say why and that was what the email said - give us another form of ID.

I then had to explain that my medical issues do not allow me to obtain a driver's license and my passport had expired and I hadn't renewed it because I know I wouldn't be traveling much. I also asked why they needed a secondary form of photo ID.

They told me they couldn't "verify" my state ID, but won't tell me why it couldn't be verified. They told me that because I don't have any secondary forms of ID at this point that I have go get a notarized written statement saying that my ID card is real. Not certain what this does for them. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go and get it done. We've all been battling illness at home and I can't drive and most of the notary places I could go to aren't open when my main ride is working. Hardly anyone wants to babysit a sick child and I don't want to take them out in public where they could perhaps get someone else sick. Hoping to finally get to it this upcoming week, but at the same time I'm not battling myself because I wonder if they'd been ripping me off and the reviews online are saying the same things and haven't been getting any better. Checked back again this month and there are even more negative reviews:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.draft2digital.com

I had asked them if there's any info required to be included on this written statement and they haven't responded to that, either.


Beware of Draft2Digital right now guys, I don't know what they're trying to pull.

On the flip side: Anyone have any good alternative options beside this that I can consider? If it's free, that would be ideal. I don't want to have to dish out a lot of money to get back up and running. I'm aware of Amazon/KDP and that seems like the gold standard for most of you and it's free to my understanding so I might have to. I've heard a lot of horror stories about Amazon ripping authors off, too, so I don't know. Heard of IngramSpark, Apple Books, and such.

I would totally go about this myself and do my own website, sell my own books and such, but the way life is going right now - I don't have that kind of time and when I can't drive myself to the post office to ship something, that would be more difficult than selling ebooks on a platform.

Any good recommendations about print on demand would be great, too. I did print books through D2D and not gonna lie, they turned out fantastic! I mean, completely amazing and pristine! I couldn't have been more in love with the quality, but if D2D falls through or I choose not to try to get that notarized letter after all, I would still like to have a print book option down the road again.

 

I would assume that part pertains to the USA mostly. A lot of things where you are considered an independent contractor or sole proprietor ask for photo ID even if the business itself isn't withholding any taxes for you. To my understanding, a business does this to be in compliance with US laws, they need to be sure to verify tax documents and identity or they could face major fines or prison time for false documentation. Even if they don't withhold taxes, they can send you what your earnings were throughout the year so that you may file them on your taxes.

I was impressed how many places you could post your book on D2D and have never had a real problem with them until now. Feel a bit betrayed to be honest. I don't feel like they're being all that nice or transparent about things. It feels a bit iffy at this point and other people are having similar issues so I'm getting hesitant about going back to them.

 

Hi, I have had a similar experience, but even more absurd: after having been with D2D for about a year, they asked me for additional KYC tax info, and they warned me, in a strict, military and far from polite manner that “if you fail to do so you will have to re-take the tax interview.” Notice how they mentioned nothing about delisting any books. Many days after I gave them the information, they sent me an email asking me to “reply to the original email” which didn't make any sense to me. So, I asked them to explain what I need to do more. I told them I had already sent everything they had asked. Silence. I sent them a second email to ask them if I need to do something further. Silence, and a few days later they delisted all my books without any warning or any kind of communication. They also refuse to pay me what they owe me unless I sent the information (which I have already sent).

What adds insult to injury is the tone of their emails - they are so aggressive and impolite: “Do this or we will take this action against you.” “You failed to do this and that even though you were specifically asked to.” “We may take legal action against you.” What kind of language is that? Is this how you “put your authors first?”

But aside the language, it makes very little sense to delist books and delete accounts without reason or warning. I am convinced D2D is either dishonest or incompetent for a very simple reason: they refuse to listen. I've sent them long emails to explain, again and again, that I have done everything they asked, and their replies are, again and again, a robotic two-line accusatory repetition. That said, I also believe they used to be a good company. I have no idea what happened to them.

KYC is not just a Know Your Customer thing. It can also be a Know Your Company thing. So, here is my KYC bit: beware, before you join D2D. Their formatting is great, but what's the point if the Customer Service is atrocious and they can delist your books any time they feel like, for any reason and without any explanation?

By the way, as I have been looking into all that has happened, struggling to make sense, there is one thing I learnt: getting your own ISBN is a bit troublesome, but really worth it in the long term. Getting a "free" ISBN (or anything else, for that matter) might not be as free as you originally thought.

 

I know this post was quite a few months ago, haven't been on in a while, but it seems as time goes on there's more and more people that have had the issue with D2D and it makes me super sad. Some authors said they had royalties to be paid on their account and yet, can't cash them out so they lost quite a bit of money.

The emails were horrid to get! Like...you don't do a thing wrong and they are threatening legal action - it's overly defensive, which makes me come to the conclusion that they're doing something illegal or something entirely unethical. They weren't sympathetic at all and their customer support stinks.

I feel some sense of peace that I didn't use their free ISBN and copyrighted my work first before putting it on D2D - it wasn't required, but of course the sense of peace I feel about that decision for my own book was worth it to me. I definitely hear you on that one - it was incredibly easy to take my book elsewhere, but who knows if they are still making copies and selling it elsewhere?

I am glad I left there quite some time ago after ripping my books down on their site completely.

They are definitely sketchy and I hope that people will decide to move to other platforms because that entire ordeal was ridiculous.

 

Just saw this, this evening. It's very worrying, considering D2D used to have a good reputation.

I think a lot of this has to do with humans giving the control of their business over to the A.I.s. I wonder at what point state legislatures or even Congress will have to get involved. And what implications that will have for non-American authors who've been screwed over by D2D's inexplicable policies.

 

In our day and age this is entirely possible...

The reason I signed up with D2D in the first place was because they had a good reputation. It was strange how all of a sudden this blew up.

I've definitely seen a lot of non-American author complaints. I'm an American author, but it seems to be hitting other countries the most.

Some answers from D2D on what's going on here would probably be nice.

 

I'm glad that D2D has been working out for you and that you haven't had any problems. It seems there have been authors out there that are still using them so perhaps they haven't had any issues.

The problem was I gave them all the necessary info for the renewal - even better quality photos of my ID the second time around yet somehow unverifiable and they couldn't give me a reason why. The tax renewal marked itself as "complete" and I was thinking it'd be as effortless as the first time I did it. I had many other e-mail chats with customer support and it was them telling me what the tax department told them and after a while, I was given the cold shoulder.

The one I posted in this thread, I'm sure was automated, but the way it's written needs to be re-worded and I'm certain that D2D has the power to go choose different wording styles for their automated messages. They came from somewhere.

It's true, any company can revoke your book from their platforms at any time they wish. You would think that they would at least be nice enough to send you an e-mail about the heads up. They were totally delisted. The only e-mail received after the fact was from Amazon saying my books no longer met their qualifications, whatever those were and it was probably because of what was going on with the D2D tax stuff. Although, as far as things go with Amazon KDP by itself - I've never had to provide photo ID.

My books were listed on all the retailers available through D2D, but many popped up on vendors not listed, but I didn't know if these were third parties of the retailers I was listed through and there was nothing about this I could find in their policies at the time that mentioned something like this unless I had missed it. If this is the case, I wish they were more transparent on every place an author's book is for sale.

I had a friend buy my second book since they had enjoyed the first and I never got the royalty for the purchase on the second book for whatever reason so where did the royalties go? I'll never know.

Regardless of not selling any print copies through D2D nor giving any print copies away, I was finding listings of my book on eBay (in more than one country), Foyles, Bol. , BuscaLibre, LibroWorld, etc. Some of these I can think would be working with the stated vendors, but eBay kind of threw me off. If they are using third party vendors not listed - what's there to be sure an author is receiving all their royalties and it isn't becoming pocket change somewhere?

In the end, as much as it seemed like things were going well with D2D until they delisted my books and became unreasonable, I've moved on.

 

I just moved about half of my books from Amazon to Draft2Digital -- prompted by Amazon's elimination of download and transfer of Kindle books. I'm waiting on the remaining Kindle Unlimited books to reach end of term and will move them as well. I'm not trying to make a living from books sales but this discussion has me nervous about D2D.